A survey by CharityComms and Forster found that only 14 per cent of charity employees felt fundraising and comms departments always worked towards shared goals.

‘We don’t talk to each other,’ one respondent told interviewers. The charity staffer added: ‘The comms team does not know enough about fundraising expertise and vice versa, so both are frustrated.

‘We don’t know what the other team is working on, so the brand frequently vetoes projects that fundraising may have spent considerable time working on. It causes real negativity between us.’

The news comes as The Terrence Higgins Trust merges its comms, health improvement and fundraising teams to form a new department.

The Aids and HIV charity says the new structure will enable it to ‘enhance the link between its brand and income generation, further align its messaging and bring supporters closer together at the very heart of the organisation’.

The survey also revealed that 22 per cent of charity employees felt that fundraising was always involved in brand decisions, with 60 per cent saying it was sometimes involved.

Forster director Peter Gilheany said: ‘Considering the pressure on budgets and income for most charities at the moment, it is surprising that more are not maximising co-operation between comms and fundraising.’

In total, 115 fundraising and comms professionals were surveyed about their attitudes towards each other.